Crysis 2

eSport deaths aren't like normal deaths you understand, reputation is everything and that's quite unfortunate. Clanbase's spiritual death by the loss of its reputation, could be linked to multiple issues this season, such as the Dignitas “blip” or the upper-bracket final “fiasco”, which unluckily for Clanbase involved the same team - H2k.Thermaltake.

I would, however, question anyone bar Dignitas of course, who genially fells aggrieved by an understaffed Clanbase this Eurocup, but it seems the sensitive souls in the invite community generally believe the game should be tailored exclusively round them anyway. Whether this involves Clanbase ignoring the ethical dilemma of contradicting its own rules and setting a precedent for the sake of common sense, then so be it. While I'm all for common sense and left in no doubt that Dignitas deserve to be in the final, there was only ever going to be one decision made, regardless who eventually made it.

While it's easy to write gushing hyperbole and make as much fuss about boycotts from this team and that, let's be honest for a second, the only boycott was from fnatic. Dignitas' withdrawal was a consequence of things not going their way, rightly or wrongly that's the conclusion. As for Meet Your Makers (MYM), well, if a piggy-back publicity stunt counts as a boycott, then they certainly stuck it to um'.

Guilt by association is fun, or so I've heard, and while everyone clambered to flog the Clanbase donkey down another peg two nights ago, the ruling that another final was required was the correct decision. The fat French jockey didn't particularly help nor did the admins' ambiguous wording, but the right decision was made.

For an invite community which strives so vigorously for a competitive and balanced platform, it seems strange that we're so quick to criticise and abandon the same rules which we've used to protect and alienate ourselves in the first place. And let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, after all Clanbase was and will always be an online league, a distraction between 'real events'. Anyone citing the LAN finals of yesteryear is only failing into the same nostalgic trap that eventually sucker punched the Counter Strike 1.6 community, ala Cyberathlete Professional League and their fiscal irresponsibility.

The Global Gaming League (GGL) acquired Clanbase just under three years ago, it seems like madness to draw comparisons, never mind favorable ones, between the CoD2 LAN finals of 2006 to this season's Eurocup, especially since a lot of you've yet to see any money from the respective tournaments. Just to prove how powerful the issue of reputation is, here's a quote from the actual news announcement of the GGL acquisation of Clanbase, July 19th 2005; “Over the years Clanbase has gotten such a bad reputation that every time you hear about the Eurocup(s) nowadays people just aren't interested, yet CB EC / OC used to be the best of the best.”

If you really have an issue with Clanbase then follow fnatic not Dignitas or MYM's example, and be prompt about it, don't count on the Electronic Sports League (ESL) and their Major Series either, they're even more stringent with rules and one senior ESL employee commented candidly that the Major series had “zero coverage, no admins, crap rules” and was “run mostly by luck”. Ironically enough though, you can ask H2K' how strict the ESL are, seeing as they were removed from the group stage after winning their opening two matches, tough luck eh?